If I can stretch the topic to venomous snakes in general, and not just AZ snakes (which I've never seen), I would agree strongly with the assurance that any North American snake just wants to be left alone. What little energy and venom they have must be used to strike and retrieve prey. This is the whole point of a rattle and bright colorings on top--to warn anybody but a rodent that you're a poisonous snake, without having to actually use up all your venom.
When hiking and biking in the hills around LA I saw plenty of rattle snakes and they were all dozing lazily in the sun. In fact one day I was trail running (waddling) just past Malibu Creek park near the water works and came on a fat rattler stretched straight across the trail with no room to go around it.
Now I ask the group, is there somebody here who would step across a rattler, no matter how docile it looked? I wouldn't either, so I spent the next few minutes stomping my foot on the ground trying to get it to wake up and move. Eventually it did edge off of the trail, but sat there coiled, watching me walk past (within strike range).
